Surf feminist hero Lucy Small rips Billabong over brand’s hard pivot to “busty gal marketing!”

"Where surf culture meets sex appeal."

Surf, man. From the outside, our favorite pastime, this Sport of Queens, appears a bucolic dopamine booster that fosters “good vibes.” Bobbing out in the gorgeous seas, kissed by the sun itself, being all healthy and fit and blessed. Inside, though, we all know that it is a toxic stew where no fight is too petty, no beef too small. Or big and meaningful, I suppose. Surfers will shred each other over, well, anything including, but not limited to, the usage of busty gals in marketing materials.

There was once a time, you certainly recall, when bikini contests were ubiquitous at surf affairs. Exclusively women, back then, standing on a makeshift beach stage wearing revealing swimwear whilst men, strangling warm-ish cans of Bud Light, would hoot and holler and slobber misogynist slobber.

Thankfully, culture matured and surf brands moved with the tide, sponsoring women who actually surf too.

Well, culture continued to mature, the surf brands became irrelevant and a giant New York managing firms purchased them all for a song. The houses of Quiksilver, RVCA, DC, Dakine, Billabong all under one roof. Team members shredded, t-shirts dumped into Costco and, in Billabong’s case, the mothballed busty gals rolled back out for a trot.

This time around, though, there is a surf feminist hero around to give hell and Lucy Small ain’t pulling no punches.

Taking to Instagram, the brave longboarder ripped into the onetime legacy Australian label for its overt sexism, its dribbling boorishness, pulling no punches. Small then followed with the damning “sexist cycle of sport.

The question, I suppose, is will the Park Avenue suits listen and re-pivot to a celebration of sporting performance or double down on smut?

What would you do if you were an Authentic Brands Group executive vice president?

More as the story develops.